Tag Archive: Phil Younghusband

Last night was the night of all my football night. I never imagined that the Philippine National Team (Azkals) will win against the MLS champions LA Galaxy but I was hoping of a more decent scoreline :D. Nonetheless, it was a good night for the Philippine football that after a nice run a year ago in the Suzuki Cup, football in the Philippines is being noticed by the Filipinos.

David Beckham is David Beckham! He is one if not the reason why the Rizal Stadium is almost 70 to 80% filled of shrieking fans despite the prices of the tickets. The “bend it like Beckham” was witnessed by the fans in the stadium as well as the millions of the Filipinos watching the game. You could see that these champions are really good compared to the Azkals. At first, they were not that serious in playing, but later on they showed that they are not champions for nothing and defeated the Azkals. They have shown great ball passing and just great team play. And when David Beckham gave his shirt to the boxing champ Manny Pacquiao on the stadium watching—that was just a freaking moment (even Manny’s wife was happy seeing Beck’s too close). Everyone was a fan girl or fan boy last night.

It was really a nice game even though the Azkals did not win. The first half was a better game, the Azkals threatened the LA Galaxy more. But sad to say, they always run out of gas after 60 minutes or even after half time. They really need a good conditioning coach. The Azkals are missing a lot of its team players because of club commitments. Neil Etheridge (the 2nd GK for Fulham) was not around because Fulham has its game on Monday with Liverpool as well the Azkals 2nd GK Roland Muller who has also club commitments and the Azkals was left with no other choice but to use its 3rd GK Ed Sacapano. I’m quite happy for Ed because he was able to play against superstars. He was always left to be 2nd choice if Neil or Roland was the GK for Azkals. He must be totally happy even with the bad results. It’s not all his fault although his height mattered, if it is Neil, some of the goals will not happen because of Neil’s huge size and intelligence :D. The Azkals lack better defenders. The team Captain, Aly Borromeo did not play also because of his injury. Imagine that the Captain and the GK not around! Surely the team suffered. Also, Stephan Schrock, Paul Mulders, Jerry Lucena and Dennis Cagara, these Azkals Europe-based players were not around to play against LA Galaxy because of club commitments.

When Phil Younghusband scored the lone goal for the Azkals last night before the first half, the Filipinos were rejuvenated. After the 2nd half, the Azkals just got owned. Most of the first XI of the Azkals were substituted to give chances for other players to experienced that game 😀 and that just gave the LA Galaxy a massive win. Chieffy Caligdong, James Younghusband, Ray Johnsson, Manny Ott and Angel Guirado played a good game, and surprisingly even Jason Sabio played a better one on the first half. I just can’t help but smile when Jason de Jong came for Manny Ott. Really, Jason is a bad boy :D, it will not be a game of his if he is not given a yellow card or will give his opponent a tackle. However, I like his bad boy passionate attitude on the pitch.

I slept very late last night because the game was always on my mind and when I woke up that LA Galaxy vs Azkals was still on my mind. And I know a lot of football fans have this kind of feeling. Even the Azkals were fan boys last night :D, starstruck and just couldn’t believe that they were able to play with a superstar in football and in the Philippines just after the sport was just rejuvenated for just a year. The scoreline might be shameful compared to LA Galaxy vs Indonesia 1-0, but I’m just happy about what Landon Donovan and the Coach said, that there are more talents in the Philippines and they were threatened more by the Azkals compared to the Indonesians—-and that just made my night! 😀 And I think he was just honest lol.

I hope with this event, some of those premiere leagues will play a friendly with the Philippines or even a powerhouse in ASIA (hello Japan, Australia and South Korea!).

What a great game and a great feeling. Mabuhay Azkals! Mabuhay LA Galaxy! And mabuhay tayong mga Pinoy!

Yes, after almost a year the Azkals and the Lions will meet again but this time the Singaporeans will have better advantage, they are on their own den. I could say that the Azkals now is different from the Azkals that they met last Suzuki Cup. More new breed, more talents, more skills plus the undying love and support of fans from a basketball-boxing country. However, the Lions are in the mood to revenge their 1-1 draw last time they met and they are also in their preparation for their World Cup bid. Come this October 7, 2011, Singapore’s Jalan Besar will be a pool of reds and blues, with the Lion fans in reds and the Azkals mostly in blue.

Some of the Philippine fans will be flying to Singapore and the rest who are residing and working in Singapore are expected to be there as what the sold-out tickets already stated. I just hope that there will be no rumbles, just pure fun and football—on the part of the fans and the players. Filipino fans are not into trouble making even when they are provoke, but if the heat is on, I just don’t know what will happen :D.

Most of the European players of the Philippines led by goalkeeper Neil Etheridge and Stephan Schrock will play and thus strengthen the Azkals line up. And after a lot of expectations, I hope we will be seeing Dennis Cagara in action for the Azkals. We want to see what he can deliver as an Azkal. As for Chieffy Caligdong, Phil Younghusband and Angel Guirado—hoping these three will provide the Azkals some goals. This is Coach Weiss’s “Dream Team” for the Azkals. But since they don’t play regularly together, team cohesion will play a crucial part. This will be a great game both for the Philippines and Singapore.

*As of last night news, Stephan Schrock, the one who scored against Kuwait for the 2nd round World Cup Qualifiers will not be available for the Philippine team because of injury. That is so sad, because personally I love him on the pitch. He is a great player and knows what to do :).